Mai ling-cage for boxes



(No Model.)

W. H. PAGE. MAILING GAGE FOR BOXES.

No. 439,177. Patented 0015.28, 1890.

gm-masses: I juvauw-on: 7 W.

mailing cage,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM l-IANSELL PAGE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

MAILING-CAGE FOR BOXES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 439,177, dated October 28, 1890..

Application filed August 9, 1890.

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM HANSELL PAGE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Mailing Cage for Boxes and Packages, of which the following is a specification.

In transmitting through the mails small boxes and packages containing samples and articles of commerce, it is desirable to secure them by a fastening which, while capable of being applied and removed with facility, will at the same time while in place thereon eflectlvely secure them against accidental opening and discharge of their contents in the handhug and jarring incident to such transmittal, and this is especially true of such boxes of tin and wood as are in their ordinary form unprovided with looks or latches. The tying up of such boxes by means of twine is unsatisfactory not only because such tying is a slow and tedious process, and the knot is liable to give, but also because said boxes, when made as they most commonly are, of circular plan, permit the twine unless it is very carefully and tightly applied, to slip from its place and drop off.

It is the object of my invention to provide a mailing cage of simple and inexpensive construction, adapted to be employed in connection with packages of various character but especially in connection with lidded sample boxes, and which will when applied to a box retain itself in position and hold the box firmly closed regardless of whether the latter be of angular or circular plan.

In the drawings I illustrate and herein I describe a preferred form of a convenient embodiment of my invention, the particular subject matter claimed as novel being herein after definitely specified.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a View in perspective of a box of circular plan, provided with my improved mailing cage, and in readiness to be mailed. Fig. 2 is a central sectional elevation of the same on the line 00 0c of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is aview in perspective of a square-sided box provided with my improved and in readiness to be mailed.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

Serial No. 361,525. (No model.)

In the drawings, A is a lidded box, shown in Figs. 1 and 2 as being, as stated, of circular plan, and in Fig. 3 as of quadrangular plan.

B B are a pair of clamp or head plates, which are illustrated as being counterparts of each other, and which are preferably of outline corresponding to the plan of the package to which they are applied. When these plates are applied to a box the lid of which opens upwardly, one, B, is applied to its top, and the other, B, to its bottom, as shown in the drawings, and are in such position to be drawn together to tightly clasp the box. To effect such drawing together, I prefer to employ a wire D, arranged in the man ner illustrated. The plate B embodies four recesses or apertures 11 b b b, and the plate B embodies four corresponding recesses or apertures c c c 0 the apertures c 0 being supposed on the side of the box farthest from the eye and therefore hidden, but being so designated for convenience of description. The wire D passes alternately up and down through the pairs of apertures in the respective plates, that is to say said wires pass downward through the apertures b 0', along the under face of the bottom plate B to the aperture 0 up through the apertures 0 12 along the upper surface of the upper plate B to the aperture 12 down through the apertures b 0 along the under face of the bottom plate B to the aperture 0, up through the apertures 0 b and along the upper face of the upper plate B to the starting point. The wire is tightly drawn along the under face of the bottom plate B, but in passing along the upper face of the upper plate B, from theaperture b to the aperture 12 it is permitted to be loose to form a bight E, which I term the lesser bight,-and in passing along the upper face of said upper plate B, from the aperture 1) to the aperture 11 bight.

When the wire connection described is formed of a single piece of wire, it will, of course, have at some point of the cage a knot by which its meeting extremities are united.

Generally stated, the wir'e'connection described consists in efiect of two loops of wire, springing from the lower plate,

it is similarly permitted to bev loose to form a bi ght F, which I term the larger box or and the upper portions of which loops are constituted by the bightsdescribed, one of the loops be 'ing preferably longer than the other, upon the four wire legs of which two loops the upper plate is, by means of its apertures b b 1) b threaded and free for limited vertical adj ustment or movement, and it is obvious that said Wire loops might be formed by other arrangements or dispositions of the wire connection which would be apparent to a practical constructer of the device, that shown being a convenient arrangement inasmuch as in it the wire connection is formed of a single piece of wlre.

The two bights described permit the upper plate to be moved away from the lower until it reaches the outer end of the lesser bight. The box to which the cage is to be applied should be of such size that the said upper plate will, when down in place upon its top,

permit a considerable portion of both bights to remain above its own upper surface.

To apply the cage to a box, the plates are spread apart to or almost to the limit of their separation, the intermediate wires slightly spread to permit the entrance between them of the box, and said box is inserted between the plates. Theupper plate is forced down upon the top of the box, and the wire of two bights o drawn upward. The greater bight F is then flattened down upon the top of the box so that its loop extends across toward the opposite side thereof, and thereupon the lesser bight E is similarly flattened down upon the 3 5 greater bight, said bight E reaching conveniently to about the center of the plate. The extremity or tip f of the bight F, lying within and beneath the bight E, is then elevated and reversed, crossing and inclosing in 0 the loop thus formed the wire of the bight E, and said extremity is then flattened down upon the lid and its tip if desired entered in a recess or pocket g formed in the substance of the plate. The wire employed should be constructed and arranged as described, can be applied to boxes of various sizes Within given limits, the bights described being smaller or larger as the boxes are larger or smaller.

The plates described are conveniently made of wood, and as is apparenta numberof them may be contemporaneously formed, rendering the contrivance very inexpensive.

The device can be readily applied and removed, and the same cage can be used upon a number of boxes in succession. The plates afford a convenient surface for the attachment of a tag or label bearing the address of the person to whom the article is to be delivered.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. A mailing cage composed of two head plates united by a double looped wire connection which terminates beyond one of the plates in a pair of loops or bights, one of which is longer than the other and entered through the other and bent backward upon it to effect a locking engagement, substantially as set forth.

2. A mailing cage composed of two head plates united by a double looped wire connection terminating beyond one of the plates in a pair of loops or bights, one of which is longer than the other and adapted to be entered through the other and bent backward to effect retention, and means for retaining said longer loop or bight in its bent position, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have hereunto signed my name this 4th day of August, A. D. 1890.

WILLIAM HANSELL PAGE.

In presence of- F NORMAN DIXON, LEWIS ALTMAIER. 

